Physicist Dr. Robert Lang has turned geek pastime into a source of scientific innovation, using the art of origami to make significant contributions in the fields of astronomy, heart surgery and consumer safety.

According to blog Damn Interesting, Lang took up origami as a hobby as a child, but began to fine-tune and expand his interest in the craft while earning a Ph.D in applied physics. In between working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory, writing technical papers and filing patents, he starting evolving the already complex format to create hundred-fold deep designs — like a full-scale cuckoo clock and massively elaborate geometric patterns. This 54-uniform edge polypolyhedra (pictured left) took Lang several full days to assemble.

Eventually, Lang’s paper-folding obsession began to spill into his professional life of scientific research, and several practical applications emerged from the intricate art.

In addition to working on a project to develop complicated crease patterns for airbag folding designs, Lang helped design a mesh wire heart support to be folded and implanted in congestive heart failure patients; once inside, it would expand, protecting the heart.

His most ambitious project to date, however, is shared with a team at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with whom he has developed a space telescope – one that is forty times larger than the
Hubble and collapsible for space travel through a series of precise origami folds.

Think you’ve got digits nimble enough to manipulate paper as well as Lang? Several of his elaborate crease patterns are available for download from his site. Lang also has several exhibitions coming up over the next few months, including a stint at the MOMA in New York.

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